A Fatal End
by Pansk
Summary: A Haku and Zabuza oneshot showing how the two's bond lasted up until they both died.


**Disclaimer:** I do not own Haku or Zabuza, I just write about them from my point of view. They are owned and created ( and no doubt loved ) by Masashi Kishimoto.

**Warnings:** This story is about Haku and Zabuza, if you don't like the pairing, get out. Right now. Leave. Go on! Shoo! There is no reason for you to stay here now! Go!

**Time: **The time set is waaaaaaaaaaay in the past, then it zooms forward; then again it goes forward to their sad deaths.

In my story, Haku is a male. You wanna complain? Go write yer own story!

Make sure to read and review ok? Arigatou!

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"What are you doing?"

Asked a gruff voice. The small child it obviously addressed looked up, locks of black hair falling in front of the cute face. The boy smiled, his grin reached up to his eyes. He stood up, barely coming to the older man's hipbone. His childish face turned up to look at the masked man's face.

"Gomen Zabuza-sama."

The small child said, his eyes closed slowly, his grin grew into a broad close-lipped smile. He giggled slightly, looking every inch the seven-year old he was. The older man's hand came to rest on the boy's head. His own eyes closed and through the binding, you could see the faint trace of a smile.

"Ah, Haku-chan, it's all right. But don't do that again."

He said, giving the boy a few small words of praise. Haku looked up at him, Zabuza, his eyes filled with adoration and love. Zabuza was taken a-back. Never before had he encountered these emotions. He looked down at the child and removed his hand hastily, ruffling the child's hair with the small gust he stirred up.

"What are you smiling at child?"

He asked gruffly,

"You know I have no need for love or kindness, I've told you before."

The child's eyes returned to normal as he looked at the older man, he nodded his head,

"Forgive me Zabuza-sama, I'm only a tool to be used by you. To be kept at your side until I am no longer needed."

He looked down the path at a small white rabbit,

"But your eyes are still like mine."

Zabuza nodded, the boy was learning, the only three things Zabuza really cared for, as far as traits in a person went were their loyalty, their courage, and their power. He looked down at the boy, who was already quite strong, Zabuza had no doubt that this small boy would bring great fortune to him and marveled that he'd been the one to find this prize.

This diamond in the rocks.

This piece of gold among pyrite.

Zabuza lay a hand on the shoulder of Haku and looked down at the small rabbit,

"Get the rabbit, then we need to leave."

Haku hurried to grab the small white rabbit, which hopped about and nibbled on the grass stalks. Haku smiled, feeling the soft warm fur the white rabbit had. He looked up at Zabuza who'd already started down the path. He didn't even try to call for Zabuza to wait up, he knew the man wouldn't.

He ran to catch up with the man, the weights that had been placed on his legs to keep him from moving fast, weighed him down and he struggled towards Zabuza. He didn't call out, but the clanking of the weights as they smacked against each other was a dead give away. Zabuza stopped and looked at the small boy who raced to catch up.

Zabuza's mask cracked into a smile, he enjoyed watching this boy progress. Haku was the perfect tool. He waited for the boy to catch up, rewarding him with another shoulder pat and the two walked away from the Land of Waves.

"Haku, we are leaving this place for a while."

"I am merely a tool Zabuza-sama, use me as you will."

Zabuza looked down at the small child, his eyes grew wider, and he smiled again, tenderly this time and planted a hand on the young child's shoulder. Together, the Demon of the Hidden Mist and his stray child walked away from the Land of Waves. They would train, and come back to finish what they had started to do.

"Faster Haku!"

"Hai!"

The boy, who had been standing still was soon gone as his incredible speed picked up and he zipped over the water, literally walking on the water, only, he didn't use a fraction of the chakra. He merely went fast enough to move over the water with as little amount of chakra he could muster.

He went faster and faster as Zabuza had asked him to. He sped faster, the weights still weight heavily on his legs, the small boy sighed, he wanted to take them off, if only for a moment. He'd worn then for the last three years, working his running to perfection. He vanished to the left as a sword suddenly swung at him. But the Demon had already predicted where the boy would zip to and had changed the grip on his sword.

He swung again without fear. He slashed at the air right in front of Haku, the boy's face became startled, but then he looked at the floor, he crumpled there, shoulders shaking. Zabuza looked at Haku, he felt cold heart soften, but his voice remained tense.

"Haku-chan,"

He started, the small boy looked up,

"Hai, Zabuza-sama?"

He asked carefully, fearing what the man would do.

"You've failed me again."

"Hai."

"Don't do so anymore."

Tears leaked down Haku's face as Zabuza said those words, his heart tearing, he looked up at Zabuza,

"Kill me,"

He whispered to the man, eyes closed, head still bowed. Zabuza looked at him, if he was shocked, he didn't show it. Haku looked up at him, eyes closed still, tears streaming down his cheeks.

"I've failed you Zabuza-sama! I'm broken! I won't even be able to save you!"

He said in agony. His fists came up to his chest as he cried softly.

"Please, this tool it broken, cast it aside. Destroy it so it may not be used against you!"

He said to the man standing before him. Tears still streamed down his face. He was shocked when a hand rested on his shoulder, he looked up, too shocked to cry at the moment. He looked at Zabuza's black eyes.

"You are far from broken, my tool."

The tears stemmed, Haku's heart fluttered, was Zabuza giving him praise? He nearly leapt up, prepared to do anything for more. But Zabuza wasn't done yet.

"In fact, my tool, you are nearly perfect."

Haku's heart skipped a beat, what was Zabuza-sama talking about? He started to protest,

"But Zabuza-sama! I failed to--"

"Hush, Haku-chan."

"Sir?"

"Take off the weights Haku-chan."

Zabuza told him, standing up and backing up a little,

"Take then off my tool, and see how perfect you really are."

Zabuza told him, Haku nodded his head and bent down to his feet, first untying the right one, then the left. Haku huffed as he lifted the weights and presented them to Zabuza, The man grunted softly.

"Take them where you will, and come at me again."

Haku looked at Zabuza, tears threatened to overflow. He shook his head, he couldn't catch Zabuza! No, never! He sighed and placed them on the ground, surprised at out light he felt. He looked at Zabuza, as if the man had something to do with the way he felt at that moment. He looked at the half-masked ninja.

"Come at me, my Haku-chan."

Zabuza told him. Haku nodded his head and braced for the weight of the weights on his feet to get moving. He zipped for where he was to Zabuza in a half a second. He blinked in surprise, when had he gotten so fast? He dodged a kunai that Zabuza had thrown at him, as if it as moving in slow motion. Haku ran crossed the water. The ninja-in-training was shocked. He sped back to Zabuza, barely stirring the water because of the surface tension he used.

Zabuza smiled when Haku came to a rest at his side.

"Well done my tool." He told Haku, who blushed and looked at Zabuza, eyes glowing with adoration.

"No,"

He said, still shaking his head,

"Arigatou Zabuza-sama, you're tool's speed is perfect."

Zabuza smiled,

"Now my tool, you need to learn a few hand seals."

"Seals?"

"Hai, do not ask questions, a tools job to learn and to become honed to perfect, not to ask questions."

"Hai, sir."

"Now then, listen closely..."

So began Haku's teaching of the hand-seals. Which the boy picked up with surprising easy. Zabuza was pleased, the small runt he'd picked up was coming along as darn near perfectly as he could have come along. The boy seemed to have less a talent with water than with ice. Needless to say, Zabuza allowed him to work out his own jutsu. He knew the boy was special.

But he'd never known how special.

They were asleep in an inn when Haku awoke suddenly, he got up off the floor and looked at Zabuza asleep on the bed (since the inn was run-down and it had only one bed, Haku had slept on the floor.). He turned his head, unusually keen ears picked up the soft breathing patterns of someone stalking something, curious, Haku had grabbed his needles and headed towards the door, his instincts aflame with alert and adrenaline.

The door opened without a sound and the strange man walked in. Haku, moving silently as he'd be taught, followed the man, who crept over to Zabuza's still sleeping form. Haku frowned, he'd die before Zabuza would come to harm!

He silently preformed a few choice hand seals and the room grew colder. The man's breath became visible on the air, he shivered and looked around,

"What the...?"

He asked the air. He turned and looked at the small boy, whose eyes were glittering eerily,

"Where did you come from?"

He whispered, fearing to wake his target. The boy's hands brought up and in each of them, four medical needles. The boy glared at the man who took a step back, something was wrong with this kid! The man started to grow scared.

"Who ... what are you?"

He asked finally, looking at the boy, who responded, his voice calm and cold,

"I am the tool of Zabuza-sama. I am his weapon."

The boy said, then launched the needles at the man who screamed as they entered pressure points and cut the blood flow to his limbs, he crumpled to the floor. Haku looked up from the man to see Zabuza looking down at the hunter-nin. He looked at Haku and smiled,

"Well done my tool."

He said softly, praising the boy with seldom-heard words. Zabuza tied up the man and shivered, since his torso was uncovered all of the time, he didn't get cold easily, but that didn't mean that he couldn't feel how cold the room was. He looked at Haku,

"Enough with your jutsu."

He said, Haku nodded and broke the technique. Haku curled up on the floor, he wrapped himself up in the moth-eaten blanket and shivered, he heard rustling coming from the bed, but he didn't turn around. He tried to sleep, but the ground was too hard and too cold, even for him, maybe he shouldn't have used that technique.

He shivered until he felt something warmed drop over him. He felt himself draped in a large and warm blanket, then being picked up by something, he turned and looked at Zabuza, who was already walking back to the bed with the small child of eleven years.

Haku had never questioned Zabuza, he'd never had to before. The man just seemed to know when he had a question.

"Your bravery is being rewarded Haku-chan."

Zabuza said, plain and simple, the boy had attacked his first person tonight, Zabuza couldn't have been happier with him, well, if he'd just killed the man instead of maiming him, that would have made the Demon much happier, after all, the man had been planning to kill him, so Zabuza felt some rage towards the shinobi.

He dropped Haku into the bed with little care, then moved the child to the center, where it was warmer. Zabuza then crawled into the bed, still tired, but he'd care for his tool first.

Every good weapon had to be properly taken care of, shined, polished, and given the best edge it could have. A happy weapon would do anything you asked it too.

Zabuza crawled into bed and gabbed the other blanket at the foot of the bed. Haku was turned and watched Zabuza as the man slowly lowered himself back into the bed. Haku's eyes brimmed with unseen tears, he cried softly in to the blanket.

Zabuza could feel the tears, he saw them as well, when the boy looked up at him.

"What's wrong kid?"

Zabuza grunted out as he strove to be comfy in the small and terrible bed. Haku shook his head and was soon laying still.

Zabuza was awake a great deal longer, thinking about the small child, about how far he'd come. He savagely enjoyed teaching the small child.

He was about to fall asleep when he felt a small warm object attach itself to his side. He looked down after lifting up the blankets.

There, curled up like a small cat would, or a chipmunk getting ready for hibernation, was Haku. Zabuza's eyes softened as he gently touched the sleeping boy's face.

"My dear Haku. You mean so much more to me than my tool."

Zabuza said softly, then curled around the child, warming both himself and the small boy. He threw the warmer blanket on top of both of them and smiled.

Then, slowly, very slowly, he drifted off to sleep with Haku held loosely in his arms.

They both had pleasant dreams that night.

It was now two years since that day, and on Zabuza's final moment, he understood the missing link in his life. The last emotion that the demon would ever feel as he fell to the round, his back aflame with agony as the swords and spears shifted slightly. He groaned as he fell, his mouth parted and blood trickled out, he made no move to stop himself as he fell towards the cold, hard ground.

Love.

He'd missed love.

He'd loved Haku, and now the boy was gone, off to a better place than where Zabuza knew he was going.

He was going to Hell. And Haku? Who knew, but Zabuza was willing to bet that it was ten times nicer.

All this he thought as the world seemed to slow and he fell towards the ground. He'd had time to think about everything, it was odd, instead of his life was flashing before his eyes, images of Haku flashing instead.

Haku smiling.

Haku crying.

Zabuza groan as he hit the ground with a sickening thud that made the other shinobi wince to hear.

The Demon smiled as he waited for Hell's warm gates to open before him and take him in. He'd never see Haku again. Ever again.

That's the thought that got to him the most.

He'd always miss Haku's bright and shining face staring up at him.

His eye batted open, he looked at a pair of shoes. He groaned softly, still not yet dead, somehow. He coughed up blood from his mouth as he spoke softly,

"... Looks like it's all over ... eh, Kakashi?"

Silence. Then;

"Yeah."

Zabuza struggled to say his next words, he coughed up more blood on the concrete, and spoke again,

"Kakashi...do me a favor?"

"What is it?"

Zabuza struggled to look up at the jounin, who was about to shift his headband back over his eye.

"... I want to ... see his face."

Kakashi looked thoughtful, and for a moment, Zabuza was afraid he'd deny his request. then the jounin pulled his forehead protector over his eye and nodded, his single eye filled with hidden emotion.

"Sure."

Was all he said. Then he bent over and pulled out the swords and spears from Zabuza's back, more blood soaked the ground as Kakashi turned his over and lifted Zabuza into his arms.

Then Zabuza felt the icy tingle of snow on his face, his eyes, almost sightless now, opened slightly and he looked at the snowdrops as they fell sadly from the sky,

The villagers looked up, marveling at the snow as it fell silently from the sky with no clouds, Naruto looked up,

"Huh?"

He inquired, looking up in shock at the small snow drops that fell from the heavens.

"..."

"It's snowing."

A villager remarked as the rest remained silent,

"In the middle of summer ... ?"

Zabuza looked up at the snowdrops, feeling their cool presence as they fell on his face and body, he closed his eyes,

_My dear Haku ..._ Zabuza thought as he was dying, _Are you crying?_

He felt his body lain on the ground, he felt the cold body of his former friend and sighed, that sigh brought a spurt of blood from his mouth as he cough, inhaling more of a foul substance and gagged on it a moment.

He looked at Kakashi,

"... Thank you ... Kakashi."

He turned his head towards Haku's still form, His broken arm reached up shakily and grasped Haku's still, cold, dead fingers in his own.

_You were at my side right from the start ..._ Zabuza thought silently to his dead companion, _And I'm at yours, now, in the end ..._

Blood spurted from his mouth again as he struggled to speak,

"... If I could ... If I were able ... I would want to go ... to the same place ... on the other side ..."

He coughed again and struggled to speak his last words to the still body beside him, snow fell on the face of the former-Demon as he struggled to say his last words before his throat was closed off with blood,

"... As you."

Then Zabuza, the Demon of the Hidden Mist, died alongside the boy he'd truly loved since the first moment he'd met him; a love that he'd always denied.

A snowdrop landed on Haku's still face and melted, create a tear-like impression.

Naruto was crying, as much as he struggled so hard not to,

"... He ... was born in a village where it snows a lot ..."

Kakashi's single eye never moved from Zabuza and Haku's still forms. But he nodded his head ever so slightly,

"I see ... He was a pure spirit – as true and as clean as a newly fallen snow."

He watched the still bodes as they slowly hardened with the cold. He closed his eye slightly and thought to Zabuza,

_You **can** go with him, Zabuza ... _

... go to **that** place ...

Together.

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**Pansk: **-sniffs- Man, this story makes me cry! -reaches for tissue- I wrote it in about an hour because if I'd have done something else, this story wouldn't have seemed to beautiful because my attention wouldn't have been on it.

This is my first death story. It's a one-shot (obviously) so don't put it on an alert list because it's not going anywhere.

Please, do tell me what you liked about it, Flamers are taken, but not really loved. Thanks anyway for caring enough to reply to my sad little tale.

The ending, the death scene of Haku and Zabuza, all of the words are taken from the Manga Vol. 4 of Naruto. Not a word was added, not a word was left out. Only the actions might be a bit out of order.

And damn, I forgot how old Haku was when he died, so I made him 13. -sighs- I hope that's alright.

**Dedication:**

(I've never done one of these before, but somehow, for this story, it seems fitting.)

This story is dedicated to everyone I love, and to those who love Zabuza and Haku as much as I did, and still do to this day; even though they are dead. They are remembered in out hearts, in our minds.

Let us thank Masashi Kishimoto for creating them and their perfect ending.

Mostly, however, this story is dedicated to those who had lost loved ones. You know how much it hurts to loose anything, a dog, a cat, a snake, or even a fish or a mouse. But to loose someone you had loved with all your heart; that's the pain that hurts the most.

I hope everyone liked this story. I hope it touched you to make sure you tell those you love everyday of your lives that you love them (Even if it's a sibling and they drive you insane).

I owe all of you one!

-Pansk


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